Women`s `84 Losses May Be Only Politics

Women who run for Congress may have to stop making appeals to such traditional groups as the elderly in favor of young professionals and singles if they want to win.

This is according to a survey commissioned by the National Women`s Political Caucus after 63 of the 65 women who sought U.S. House seats last year were defeated.

Many of the losers probably were mismatched against strong incumbents or were ideologically at odds with voters, and perhaps should not have run, says pollster David Cooper, who conducted the survey.

Kathy Wilson, who leads the caucus, says that although women generally start with an advantage of 3 or 4 percentage points over men, based on sex alone, the lead evaporates because of stereotypes that women do not handle crises or stress as well as men.

Though women fared poorly in the November elections, they should take heart at the presidential election, she says. Despite the dismal showing by Democrat Walter Mondale and his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, 27 percent of those polled said they are more likely to vote for a woman seeking the White House in the future because of Ferraro`s nomination.

The survey found that although women generally tend to vote for women over men candidates by a margin of 8 or 10 percentage points, women older than 65 tend to support men by a wider margin. This is particularly significant in Florida, where almost a fifth of the people are over 65.

Wilson says women candidates who assume they should campaign heavily in senior citizen centers or nursing homes might better spend their time talking to singles, divorcees, young voters, working women and professional couples, all of whom are more inclined to support female candidates.

But the most important consideration for women running for Congress is nuts and bolts politics, Cooper says. ``If you have a liberal running in a conservative Republican area, that person is going to lose whether it`s a man or a woman.`` The 63 women defeated last year ``lost because they were mismatched from the beginning.``

Wilson refuses to categorize the 63 as ``sacrificial lambs`` running against all odds, but she concedes it is extremely difficult to defeat any incumbent.